


Perfect Days

by SegaBarrett



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: F/M, Gen, possums, snowglobes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22206553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: Jesse has a good day, as does Todd.
Relationships: Todd Alquist/Lydia Rodarte-Quayle
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20
Collections: Blue Christmeth 2019





	Perfect Days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Porkchop_Sandwiches](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Porkchop_Sandwiches/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own Breaking Bad, and I make no money from this.

There wasn’t much light in the hole; Jesse could barely see his hand in front of his face when he was down there, and sometimes he wanted to scream, wanted to beg them not to put him back down there, not the least of which was because he still wasn’t entirely sure what was down there with him.

But he knew by now that begging for something not to be done didn’t help – Jack and the others would just be extra sure to do it, to torment him, and Todd would shake his head and say something about how the rules were the rules and you didn’t wanna cross Uncle Jack.

Little by little, day by day, though, his eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness. He had heard that cats could see in the dark; maybe he was becoming a cat – a lot easier than a person.

Now, he heard a sound of scambering in his hole, somewhere right near his head. He shivered – what was that? Whatever it was, it wasn’t as if he could escape it, so he froze in his spot and simply tried to stay as still as possible, keeping his breath closed up in his chest.

The next moment, he saw something come into view, close enough to his face to have eyes bearing straight into his.

Jesse felt a scream coming up through his throat, but what good would it be to scream? The only people to come would be much scarier than whatever was in his face right now.

The next thing he saw was a bright, bright pink.

The thing had opened its mouth into a snarl filled of little teeny-tiny teeth. Jesse shuffled back a little further but had begun to lose his fear because goddamnit, at least this terror was something familiar.

It was a possum looking at him.

Jesse jerked his head back. Scrabble, come back again, maybe come out of his head and come to haunt him, a naked rat in the dark with another rat.

He tried to remember if possums ever got rabies or attacked people, but he couldn’t remember. Another thing he might have learned in school but then forgotten about. His aunt probably could have told him, but she was gone, gone, long since gone. If this thing was going to rip his face out then so be it, because he was through fighting.

He let out his breath.

The possum didn’t rip off his face. Instead, he leaned in (or maybe he was a she, Jesse didn’t really know) and began to rub his nose against Jesse’s neck. The next thing he felt was a strange tickling sensation, and he heard the possum’s teeth snap.

It was eating someone, or snatching something, off of Jesse’s neck, and he didn’t really want to know what. But he stayed still anyway, frozen still. Maybe he just liked the idea of something touching him without trying to hurt him.

He reached out a quivering hand, trying not to spook him. He didn’t think he would be able to bear it if this little guy was afraid of him, too. These days, he wasn’t sure if he could even avoid being afraid of himself. He hadn’t seen a mirror in a long while but he hadn’t been able to shave, hadn’t been able to bathe half the time, and probably looked like some dirty tweaker that had just stumbled out of a crack house.

Kind of like he was. Maybe the possum would know that, too. 

The possum leaned in, just a bit, and rubbed its tiny nose against Jesse’s hand. They locked eyes.

It felt like a long time.

***

Todd licked his finger as he pulled back another page of the catalog, pressing it down and looking through each and every option, scooping up his pen and jotting down the six-digit codes that corresponded to each and every snowglobe on the page.

But none of them were the right snowglobe. The one that he could box up and present to Lydia. The one that would fill her eyes with the same wonder his had held, once, if he could remember back far enough.

It had been like staring into a moment in time, a different world, a moment in which his heart had held something different than usual.

Maybe the same something that he could bring up when he watched Lydia’s heels tap-tap-tap along a tile floor. Was this what love was?

Maybe he needed a place where he could go in and explain exactly what he was looking for. Maybe if he just explained it to them, they would see his vision.

And then he could give it to Lydia for Christmas. It was only three months early, after all. Nothing really important ever happened in September, so it only made sense to start shopping as early as possible, especially when he was shopping for someone as special as Lydia.

He got in the car and drove to the mall listed on the back of the catalog.

He would make sure his instructions were very, very specific, and he would make sure it was perfect.

She would love it.

***

Jesse closed his hand over the little chunk of pizza he had ripped off the end. He extended it and let the possum sniff it. He turned it over and placed it right in front of him, watching with the tiniest smile as the little guy gobbled it up.

It made him want to cry, to have something small and innocent – even if it was still incredibly weird looking – trusting him. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at him like he was anything less than a pet or pest himself. 

The possum leaned in and gave Jesse’s hand a gentle nibble. He didn’t flinch. He needed this, needed this odd affection he was getting now, feeling a tiny wet nose rub up against his palm. 

“Hi,” he whispered, keeping his voice low and calm, not wanting to scare him away. The little thing needed a name. 

Maybe Jesse was going crazy, but he needed a way to talk to someone, even if that somewhat was a weird little rat with night-vision eyes.

_Jesse’s eyes went wide as he stared in the darkness at the bright yellow eyes staring back at him. They weren’t moving, and he wondered how in the hell they managed to keep their little eyes so wide all the time. It was like they never blinked._

_“Scrabble!” Aunt Ginny yelled, banging her umbrella, and Jesse heard the possum scrambled back into the attic, sliding through newspapers and plastic bags._

_“Aunt Ginny,” Jesse said, “Stay back, it might have rabies or something.”_

_Ginny shook her head._

_“Jesse, that’s silly. I saw it on the Discovery Channel that possum’s don’t get rabies. Their body weight is too low, or something like that.” She cocked her head to the side and smiled at him. “He might even be friendly, or maybe he’s lost. We need to find out what he needs.”_

_“What he needs?” Jesse asked. “He’s a possum, Ginny. He’s not really gonna come and talk to us.”_

_“Things don’t just talk in words, Jesse.”_

_He had rolled his eyes then and thought about how silly his aunt was sometimes, how she said all of these things that seemed so weird but were oddly philosophical in some sort of way when he went back and really thought about it._

_He still didn’t know what a possum could possibly want from him or his attic, though._

***

Todd clasped the snowglobe between his hands and shook it vigorously. He had to make sure that it wouldn’t, he didn’t know, fall apart or something embarrassing like that. Only the best for Miss Lydia.

“And this is top of the line, right? It’ll look exactly like I put down on the order form?’

The salesman was an eager redhead with a million-dollar smile who looked as if he should have been selling cards instead of snowglobes.

“That’s right, Mr. Alquist. All of your customized preferences are going to be just as you want them. And as you can see, Snow-World Snowglobes are hardy but delicate. I’m guessing this is going to be for the special person in your life?”

Todd bit his lip ever so slightly.

“That’s right.”

“That’s great. I’m sure she’ll be really charmed. It is a she, right?”

And Uncle Jack would have been offended, really would, steaming mad, but Jesse was also a special person in Todd’s life and Jesse was a guy so he supposed it was a fair question. Todd didn’t think that Jesse would want a snowglobe, though. He wasn’t really sure what Jesse liked, other than that he seemed to like crying a lot and eating pizza. As long as he was able to do both of those things, Todd figured that Jesse would be just fine without anything custom-made or anything.

“That’s right.”

“She’s a lucky woman.”

And maybe he was right.

***

Jesse couldn’t kept his hand away from that soft fur, couldn’t stop looking in the possum’s beady little eyes. It was silly, that this was what he had come to, but he was sure that if she left he would dissolve into a pool of tears. He didn’t know why he assumed it must be a “she”. Maybe there was something in there that just made her seem maternal like that.

He had seen pictures on the Discovery Channel of possums carrying a bunch of babies on their back. He wondered if this possum had ever done that.

If she had, then where were they now? Maybe the tiny little guys had scattered off. Was she lonely? Did she wonder where they went?

Were Jesse’s parents wondering about where he was right now? He hoped that they would never, ever, ever find out where he had been. The thought of them identifying him down here… 

But Jack would make sure that he would never be found, so at least he wouldn’t have to worry about that at least.

He reached out and gently stroked the possum’s head.

“I’m sorry,” he said. Because he didn’t know who else he could say it to now. “You… need a name.” Scrabble had had a name. “What about… Trouble? Like the board game? Yeah, you kinda look like a Trouble…”

And so do I, Jesse thought to himself. But for the moment, that was all right, or at least as all right as it was going to get in the foreseeable future.

***

“How is production coming along?” Lydia was talking her usual mile-a-minute, tapping her shoes against the floor, and almost bouncing up and down like a spring. “We need another batch by tomorrow, so there’d better not be any more delays.”

Any more delays, Todd thought, disappointed, like Lydia thought there might be. He hoped he hadn’t let her down.

“It’s going great, Miss Lydia,” Todd replied. “Right on schedule. But I actually wanted to talk to something else right now too.”

“What’s that? Has something happened with,” she lowered her voice and looked around before whispering, “Pinkman?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that. He’s fine, you know, I feed him and I walk him just like I told Uncle Jack I would.”

Lydia stared at him for a long time.

“Todd? What was all this about?”

“I got you something… it… made me think of you.” Todd looked around. This felt, suddenly, like one of those big dramatic gestures on TV. Suddenly, it seemed like maybe everyone was looking at him. But that made sense – people loved things like this.

He reached across the table and plopped the box down in front of her. It was white and pretty and stiff.

She stared at him for a long while, and he thought she would never start to open it.

Todd reached out and gripped the mug in front of him, pouring back some hot cocoa. It was never too early for hot cocoa.

“Go ahead and open it,” he said. “It’s for you,” he added needlessly.

“Todd… It’s…” Her fingers traveled up and down the edges of the cup as if she were playing the harmonica. “It’s… quite something. But… we have to be subtle.” She peeked around at it, not touching it since she had released it from the box. “You had better hold on to it for now.”

And Todd thought that maybe he felt sad about that, but it was a good call and all. Miss Lydia was so smart.

***

Jesse awoke with Trouble tucked under his arm, breathing softly.

There was the sound of metal above him, and Jesse jolted awake. Where was he? It all came flooding back again. He was where he would be, where he was meant to be, where he would always be. 

Jesse stared at the animal in front of him, too afraid to tell him – her? He still hadn’t figured that out yet – to leave, too afraid to show affection in front if whoever was up there.

As if the possum understood, Trouble gazed back at Jesse and then scampered off, back into an imperceptible hole in the grate, probably from whence he had come. 

“Jesse?”

Jesse gazed up, sighing as he saw Todd looking down at him.

“It was a perfect day, Jesse. Me and Miss Lydia, we spent the whole morning together. And… I just wanted to tell somebody. You know how those guys are – they would just laugh at me and tease me and stuff. Anyway, I’m going to go to bed. But I just wanted to let you know.”

Jesse blinked.

“Sure, Todd. Glad to hear it.”

The sound of footsteps, then rustling all over again. 

Jesse looked down.

He saw the little beady eyes again, first, and then the little wriggling heads. All along her back, little heads, little tails, six tiny heads.

He’d have to come up with more names.


End file.
